Literature Review

Roberto Vargas

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

& Research

The scholarly conversation

Research Paper

What the Lit Review is NOT!

Annotated Bibliography

Only a Summary

A book review

+Integrated analysis of scholarly writing

What the Lit Review is NOT

+Can be arranged thematically, chronologically or by questions

- A summary + an analysis

+Makes judgements on the literature:

- Identifies inconsistencies, gaps and contradictions in the literature

+Is guided by your perspective

i.e. If you write a lit review chronologically, you might be emphasizing how your topic has changed over time

- Highlights key findings

What the Lit Review is NOT

+Demonstrates why the topic is significant to the subject

+Discovers relationships between ideas/research

+Provides clues for future research

- Ensures that researches do not duplicate work that has already been done

-Areas to focus

+Demonstrates you are familiar with the topic

From: https://guides.library.vcu.edu/lit-review by Sergio Chaparro

Find the good & bad review

Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Article 7

Article 8

Article 5

Article 6

Article 3

Article 4

Article 1

Article 2

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

Article 8

INTRO

Why is it important?

How is it Organized?

How does it relate to other work?

Methods

Body

Headings/Subheadings

Critically analyze the research

Important trends

Present your connections

Conclusion

Indicate any further research

Summarize evidence

1- Tripod

Resources

2 - Language and Linguistic Compas

Annual Review of Anthropology

To think about....

"... how many sources do you need to establish the importance of a theme? Twenty?... in a database containing millions of sentences, full-text search can turn up twenty examples of anything... this might strengthen confirmation bias."

-Ted Underwood,

Theorizing Research Practices We Forgot to Theorize Twenty Years Ago

Roberto Vargas

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

http://guides.library.vcu.edu/lit-review

http://libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420475

https://laverne.libguides.com/c.php?g=34942&p=222060

Big thanks to the following libguides: